The connection was first established with amplifiers in. We couldn't believe the signal strength (not sure if the Orinoco link client was reading right) - so we decided to test it unamplified as well. This involved a great deal more than just turning off a switch or pulling a power cord. We had to physically take apart each feed and this involved un-aiming the dish on the mountain just to get access to the feed. We (I was on the base camp side) then approximated the previous dish position and set it back. We pinged the remote computer and verified that we had a connection (1Mbps). We then did a remote desktop connect (both machines running XP) and took some screenshots and stuff after we passed the official test text between the two locations. We actually didn't even peak the signal (aim) on either dish after we had connected in either amplified or unamplified configurations. We figure we had about 34dBi antenna gain on each end, and other sources we found indicate the beamwidth should be about 4 degrees. We actually found the aiming to be much more tolerant than we had expected. On the final link we were so short on time that we didn't want to risk losing the connection to aim. Afterwards it was getting dark and we were already tearing down as the remote team drove back.
-Andy
Slashdot Mirror
The connection was first established with amplifiers in. We couldn't believe the signal strength (not sure if the Orinoco link client was reading right) - so we decided to test it unamplified as well. This involved a great deal more than just turning off a switch or pulling a power cord. We had to physically take apart each feed and this involved un-aiming the dish on the mountain just to get access to the feed. We (I was on the base camp side) then approximated the previous dish position and set it back. We pinged the remote computer and verified that we had a connection (1Mbps). We then did a remote desktop connect (both machines running XP) and took some screenshots and stuff after we passed the official test text between the two locations. We actually didn't even peak the signal (aim) on either dish after we had connected in either amplified or unamplified configurations. We figure we had about 34dBi antenna gain on each end, and other sources we found indicate the beamwidth should be about 4 degrees. We actually found the aiming to be much more tolerant than we had expected. On the final link we were so short on time that we didn't want to risk losing the connection to aim. Afterwards it was getting dark and we were already tearing down as the remote team drove back. -Andy